St Edward's Hospital

St Edward's Hospital, originally built as the North Staffordshire Asylum, is a psychiatric hospital dating from approximately 1895 to 1899, designed by Giles, Gough and Trollope following a competition in 1893. The building is constructed of red brick with red sandstone dressings, cill and floor bands, and has slate gabled roofs with tall brick chimney stacks. A distinctive feature is the central bay tower, topped with an ogee cupola and weathervane.

The hospital is arranged in an echelon plan, consisting of four pavilions set back on either side and connected by corridors to a central service core. This core contains an administration block, recreation hall, and a water tower. The architectural style is Jacobean, largely two storeys in height.

The symmetrical administration block has two storeys and attics, with five windows. A projecting, five-storey tower bay provides the main entrance, featuring a sandstone portico with a central round-arched doorway, radial fanlight, and two-leaf panelled timber doors. Above the portico is a balustrade leading to two storeys of canted bay windows with carved aprons, followed by two stories of two-light windows with enriched aprons. Each facade of the tower terminates with a brick pediment displaying a clock face. Flanking bays have paired sash windows on each floor, with attic windows in gabled projections. The outer bays have canted bay windows on the ground and first floors, with paired sash attic windows. The pavilions are in a similar, simplified style. The water tower, located in a central courtyard, rises seven stories on a two-story square plinth, boldly chamfered to an octagonal shape. It is extensively corbelled out over two stages towards the top two stories and finished with gablets on the broader sides; it features two-light mullioned windows inset into the broader sides, and smaller two-light windows towards the upper stages. A faceted conical slated roof completes the tower.

The interior of the Board Room features shallow moulded panels and a stone chimneypiece. The Recreation Hall originally had a hammerbeam roof, now largely concealed by a false ceiling, and a stage.

St Edward’s was the third asylum built in Staffordshire and is considered a significant example of a medium-sized echelon plan. In 1901, G T Hine, Consulting Architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy, described the hospital as the best design by Giles, Gough and Trollope. Constructed to house 800 patients, the western half contained female patients, while the eastern half housed male patients, with separate infirm, recent, and active sections. Male and female blocks ran across the back, facing south, beyond workshops and a laundry.

The water tower was first listed in 1986.